Gregg Allman, Founding Member of the Allman Brothers Band, Dies at 69

Greg Allman, who helped found the legendary Allman Brothers
Band with his late brother Duane, died at his home in Savannah,
Georgia on Saturday at the age of 69.

According to a statement published on
Allman’s official website, the singer, songwriter, and musician
had, “struggled with many health issues over the past several
years.” In 2010, Allman underwent a liver transplant after
being diagnosed with hepatitis C. The statement goes on to
read:

“During that time, Gregg consider being on the road playing
music with his brothers and solo band for his beloved fans,
essential medicine for his soul. Playing music lifted him up
and kept him going during the toughest of times.”

Michael Lehman, Allman’s manager, said on Saturday that he’d,
“lost a dear friend and the world has lost a brilliant pioneer
in music. He was a kind and gentle soul with the best laugh I
ever heard. His love for his family and bandmates was
passionate as was the love he had for his extraordinary fans.
Gregg was an incredible partner and an even better friend. We
will all miss him.”

Allman was the lead singer of the pioneering Souther rock
band—famous for songs such as “Midnight Rider,” “Melissa,” and
“Whipping Post”—for 45 years, despite the tragic motorcycle
death of his bandmate and brother Duane Allman in 1971, at the
age of 24 (the band was founded in Jacksonville, Florida in
1969).

Allman was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and suffered plenty of
tragedy before achieving young stardom (this too, was not
always easy—the drug addiction, the broken marriages—as Allman
admitted in his 2012 memoir, My Cross To Bear). When
Allman was an infant, his father was shot and killed by a
drinking buddy, so Gregg and his brother were raised by their
single mother.

Cher, who was briefly married to Allman, wrote of his passing,
“words are impossible.”